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Neurobiologist Lynn Enquist has received a Sen. Jacob Javits Award, which provides up to seven years of research funding from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Enquist was among eight investigators who received the award, which honors “exceptional scientific excellence and productivity” in research related to the brain and nervous system. The award provides guaranteed funding for four years with the possibility of an additional three years following an interim review.

Enquist, a professor of molecular biology, focuses his research on the herpes virus and how it infects the nervous system. He came to Princeton in 1993 after 20 years of research at the National Institutes of Health and in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

The American Psychological Association has chosen Charles Gross as a recipient of its annual Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award. The association will present the award, which includes a $1,000 prize, at its annual convention in August.

Gross, a professor of psychology at Princeton since 1970, is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He studies the role of various brain structures in visual perception and visual learning.

The American Astronomical Society has awarded its highest honor, the Henry Norris Russell Lectureship, to Princeton astrophysicist James Gunn for “a lifetime of eminence in astronomical research.”

The society cited Gunn for his “contributions to observational, instrumental and theoretical astrophysics that have informed our understanding of the universe and a large fraction of its contents.” Among specific contributions, the society noted Gunn’s founding concept for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the most comprehensive mapping and cataloging of stars, galaxies and quasars ever undertaken.

Recipients of the honor are invited to give a lecture dealing with a broad astronomical field at a meeting designated by the governing council of the astronomical society. Expenses and arrangements for publication of the lecture are covered by the society. Gunn, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Astronomy, joined the Princeton faculty in 1968.

The French weekly news magazine Le Nouvel Observateur has named Princeton professors Kwame Anthony Appiah and Philip Pettit two of 25 great “public philosophers” in the world today.

In its Dec. 29, 2004, issue, which celebrates its 40th anniversary, the magazine lauds Appiah as an “ambassador of universalism,” and hails Pettit as a “holistic individualist.” The full list includes other philosophers, social theorists and critics from across the globe.

Appiah, the Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy and the University Center for Human Values, specializes in moral and political philosophy, African and African-American studies, and issues of personal and political identity, multiculturalism and nationalism. A native of Ghana, Appiah joined the Princeton faculty in 2002.

Pettit, the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Politics and the University Center for Human Values, has wide-ranging intellectual interests that include the philosophy of cognitive and social science as well as moral and political theory. A native of Ireland, Pettit joined the Princeton faculty in 2002.